ISO 16949 Automotive Sector Quality Management System

The ISO 16949 Automotive Sector Quality Management System

ISO 16949 is a technical specification that brought the US, French, German, and Italian automotive quality system standards together for the global automotive sector. It sets out the quality system requirements for the design, development, production, assembly, and servicing of automotive products.

The standard was first published in March 1999 and revised in 2002 and 2009. Today more than 47,500 certificates are held across the three major automotive manufacturing regions: Europe, the Americas, and Asia. The specification sits on top of the ISO 9000 / ISO 9001 framework and defines the individual requirements that vehicle manufacturers bring to their supply chain. ISO/TS 16949 was developed for the global automotive sector by ISO Technical Committee TC 176, building the automotive-specific clauses on to the ISO 9000 base. Its core philosophy is continuous improvement and defect prevention. ISO/TS 16949 applies to automotive suppliers of every size, from small workshops to multi-site global manufacturers.

The standard applies only to sites where manufacturing or service processes serve the original equipment automotive market. Before entering the certification process, a supplier targeting the automotive market needs to be on a potential supplier list with at least one automotive customer. The older QS 9000 standard has effectively retired and has been replaced by this specification; QS 9000 was not carried into the 2000 revision cycle.

Note that ISO/TS 16949 has since been replaced by IATF 16949, the specification now held by the International Automotive Task Force. New projects should target IATF 16949 by default; existing ISO/TS 16949 certificates are no longer maintained.

Sistem Patent Kalite supports automotive suppliers through the IATF 16949 and ISO/TS 16949 certification journey from consultancy offices in Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara, Bursa, Adana, Antalya, Eskisehir, Kayseri, and Konya.